Paul Nicholls: Why I'd love to win the Champion Hurdle

As he approaches a milestone of victories at the UK's premier National Hunt course, Paul explains why he'd love to add the Champiom Hurdle to his haul.

I was very surprised to be told earlier in the week that I was just one away from 150 winners at Cheltenham; I had no idea that I have had so much success at the home of steeplechasing.

And to have only Martin Pipe, Fulke Walwyn and Fred Rimell to have trained more winners at the course, it is an achievement of which I am very proud, as you can imagine. Because Cheltenham not only hosts the best National Hunt racing, but also the most fiercely competitive.

It certainly seems a long, long time ago since See More Indians got the Cheltenham ball rolling for me at this meeting 18 years ago - on December 10 1993, to be precise.

And we have had some great days at the course. We have had four-timers on big days, and only last month we had six winners at the Open meeting.

We have been fortunate enough to have had so many Festival winners; I believe our tally currently stands at 30.

Flagship Uberalles was my first Festival winner in the 1999 Arkle and that win initiated a week that will live long in my memory, as Call Equiname and See More Business won the Champion Chase and Gold Cup in the next two days.

I have been lucky enough to win four Gold Cups, as well as Champion Chases and World Hurdles, but I would dearly love to win a Champion Hurdle. That is the one race that has eluded me that I want to win.

What makes any win at Cheltenham so special is that it is the ultimate test of all aspects of horsemanship; be it training, jockeyship and obviously of the horse itself. And it is a tremendously-run racecourse, as well as being visually stunning.

Quite simply it is unique in all aspects.

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The Paul Nicholls Distance Challenge was finally won on Tuesday, leaving one lucky customer £13,000 richer!

The Challenge starts again for today's meeting at Taunton. For your chance to win just opt in, predict the combined winning distance at Taunton today and place a bet of £50 or more on today's racing. If you get it right, you could win up to £1,000.

Paul Nicholls / 8 Dec 2011